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large share (77-79%). The share of the local manufacturers will grow to 36-38%. Of course, we cannot rule out a pessimistic scenario associated with a further recession and lockdown," Horlova said.
Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, headed by President Zelensky, decided at its March 11 meeting to return the aerospace firm Motor Sich to the state, the president’s website reported.
“The enterprise will be returned to the Ukrainian people, to the Ukrainian state, in a legal, constitutional way in the very near future,” the council's secretary Oleksiy Danilov commented. A majority stake of the company was sold by entities close to Motor Sich president Vyachslav Boguslayev to the Chinese company Skyrizon in 2016-2017, though the government refuses to officially approve the Chinese firm as a controlling shareholder. Among the key opponents to letting the Chinese firm enter the company is the U.S. government, whose top official called such a deal as a “malign Chinese investment” in August 2020.
In another decision, the council prolonged personal sanctions against Ukrainian subsidiaries of Russian state-owned banks for three years. The sanctions against five such banks were introduced for the first time in March 2017. The measures banned any money transfers to the banks’ related companies abroad. Since then, one Russian state-owned bank (VTB-Ukraine) has been recognised as insolvent, one bank has been sold to a Ukrainian owner, and one terminated its banking operations in Ukraine. At this moment, two such banks, Sberbank-Ukraine and Prominvestbank (subsidiary of Russian state institution Vneshekonombank) continue operating in Ukraine.
Among other decisions on March 11, the council ruled to study an opportunity to nationalize Donetskoblgaz (gas distribution and supply company in the partially occupied Donetsk region of Ukraine), which has a non-transparent ownership structure.
Also, the council ruled to study the circumstances behind the approval of the so-called Kharkiv agreements between Ukraine and Russia in April 2010, based on which Ukraine extended the presence of Russian naval fleet in Crimea for 2017-2042.
Egis Ukraina, a French-financed engineering company working in Ukraine for the last three decades, has entered into a joint venture with Ertle, Ltd, an international engineering and construction holding, known locally as Derffer. The new company is called Egis Ertle Engineering. Ignace Haertlé, founder of the Ertle Group and major Derffer shareholder, notes that the company worked on the NOVARKA new safe confinement for Chornobyl, saying: “Through the years, we have delivered projects for both international and local clients including turnkey contracts, reconstructions, adaptations.”
Former Ukrzaliznytsia CEO Wojciech Balczun is co-owner of Aurum Polonez, an amber mining company in Klesiv, northern Rivne oblast, according to Nadra.info. A Polish rock musician, Balczun ran UZ in 2016-2017. His partners are Poland’s Amos Investments and Mykola Nemtsov, who was UZ’s acting director of security during Balczun’s time at the railroad.
74 UKRAINE Country Report April 2021 www.intellinews.com